Another film review today, this time of Rush, directed by Ron Howard and in cinemas now.
As a fan of Formula One motor racing for the past fifteen years or so, the decision to go and see Rush was an easy one. But even if the thought of an F1 Grand Prix makes you yawn and reach for the remote, please don’t click away: this might still be a film you want to see.
Formula One is full of big personalities: anyone who has the cojones to regularly cheat death by driving at up to 220 mph in a plastic pod weighing in at less than half the weight of a typical saloon car tends to have an oversized ego. Thus, like many sports, F1 is full of rivalries. Rush tells the story of the on- and off-track relationship between British one-time world champion James Hunt and Austrian three-times winner Niki Lauda.
Hunt and Lauda were such different personalities that their story was almost made for film. Golden-haired Hunt, born in Surrey to a successful stockbroker and his wife, was the classic hard-partying playboy who loved to add notches to his bed-post as much as he loved to win races. Lauda, on the other hand, was a disciplined technician: for him, success was all about calculating and managing risk, and anything that detracted from his focus as a driver (such as women and socialising) was to be avoided as an unnecessary distraction.
The film centres around 1976, the year in which the two drivers’ rivalry was played out in most dramatic fashion. The first half of the movie’s two-hour run time is spent establishing the characters, their social circles and their racing team environments, interspersed with short bursts of on-track action spread over the three years leading up to 1976. The racing action is very well done. Rather than use archive footage, director Ron Howard (perhaps best known for directing Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, for which he won two Oscars) opted to shoot live-action film; in its quest to achieve maximum authenticity, the production apparently even went so far as to borrow real 1970s F1 cars from collectors around the world. The results are excellent – not only is the period detail highly accurate but Howard uses an array of camera angles and careful editing to capture the drama, spectacle and adrenalin of a race, from the perspective of both drivers and spectators. Seeing the action played out is also a stark reminder of how dangerous F1 was in the 1970s and how safe it is today.
The second half of the film deals with the events of 1976, hinging around the fateful German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. I won’t say much more about the story as to do so would risk spoiling it for those not familiar with how the season unfolded. What I will say is that while I enjoyed the whole film, it was during this second half that it really came to life for me. With all the scene-setting out of the way, the focus narrows right down and the intensity is cranked up. Even though I already knew more or less what was going to happen, I still found myself almost on the edge of my seat, such was the level of suspense created: proof that Ron Howard really knows how to use film to tell a story.
A brief word about the two main actors. Hunt is played by relatively unknown Australian Chris Hemsworth. Some who followed F1 in the 1970s have said that he captures the driver’s voice and mannerisms quite uncannily. I would say he certainly puts in a creditable performance, although at times I had the impression that he was an actor trying very hard to play a part rather than genuinely inhabiting his character. There were also a few moments where I felt his accent slipped slightly, betraying his non-English roots.
Lauda, on the other hand, is played by Spanish-born German actor Daniel Brühl; if his face seems somehow familiar, you may have seen him in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds or Paul Greengrass’s The Bourne Ultimatum. I found him excellent and by far the stronger of the two leads; he convincingly pulls off the challenge of conveying Lauda the cold, clinical analyst as well as Lauda the insecure young man caught between his desire for love and acceptance and his drive to dominate and win.
As I suggested earlier, if you’re a motor racing fan you won’t need me to persuade you to see Rush. However, if what you’re expecting is wall-to-wall racing, you may be disappointed. While there’s plenty of on-track action throughout, to me the film’s main strength is that it focuses instead on the very human drama between two men who are in many ways different yet who share some of the same goals. And this is indeed a major strength, because it means this film should easily appeal to a broad audience and not just to petrol-heads.
Making a film about F1 that will satisfy both keen enthusiasts and non-initiates is a tall order, and I think Ron Howard has done a fine job with Rush. (Those looking for an F1 film more geared to enthusiasts should probably watch the excellent 2010 documentary film Senna). I’ve decided not to share the movie trailer here, because I think it gives away too much of the story. Just go and see it! (And if you do, let me know what you think in the comments.)
(Those of a sensitive disposition should be aware that Rush contains quite a bit of very colourful language as well as a number of short sex scenes.)
